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Chaire Finance Durable et Investissement Responsable Report for the year 2011
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Report for year 2011
http://www.idei.fr/chairefdir
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The research projects of the Chaire FDIR are run by the IDEI‐Toulouse School of Economics and the Economics department at Ecole Polytechnique. At the initiative of the AFG, the Chaire FDIR is made possible thanks to the financial support of the following 16 members:
Allianz GI France
Amundi AM
Axa IM
BNP Paribas AM
Caisse des dépôts
Dexia AM
Ecofi Investissements
Edmond de Rothschild AM
Financière de Champlain
FRR
Groupama AM
HSBC Global AM (France)
La Banque Postale AM
Macif Gestion
Natixis AM
La Française AM
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Table of content
Agenda for the meeting of the Orientation Committee p. 5
Research team p. 7
Research achievements p. 8
Research projects for 2012 p. 15
Publications and working papers p. 18
Communication of the Chaire FDIR achievements p. 23
Education and training related to the Chaire FDIR p. 27
Scorecard of research projects p. 29
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Agenda for the meeting of the
Orientation Committee
April 4, 2012
1. Presentation of the annual report 2. Perspectives (research projects) 3. Renewal of the Chaire 4. Miscellaneous
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Research team
Christian Gollier, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics (Chair coordinator)
Patricia Crifo, Ecole Polytechnique & U. Paris West (Chair coordinator)
Stefan Ambec, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Bruno Biais, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Catherine Casamatta, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Edouard Challe , Ecole Polytechnique (coordinator of work group 2)
Alfred Galichon, Ecole Polytechnique
Olivier Godard, CNRS & Ecole Polytechnique
Eric Giraud‐Heraud, INRA Paris & Ecole Polytechnique
Augustin Landier, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Thomas Mariotti, IDEI & & Toulouse School of Economics
Jean‐Pierre Ponssard, Ecole Polytechnique
Sylvaine Poret, INRA Paris & Ecole Polytechnique
Sébastien Pouget, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics (coordinator of work group 1)
Shyama Ramani, INRA Paris & Ecole Polytechnique
Jean‐Charles Rochet, IDEI & & Toulouse School of Economics
François Salanié, IDEI & & Toulouse School of Economics
Bernard Sinclair Desgagné, HEC Montréal & Ecole Polytechnique
Jean Tirole, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Nicolas Treich, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Michel Trommetter , INRA Paris & Ecole Polytechnique
Doctoral and post‐doctoral students
Liviu Andronic, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Claire‐Marie Bono, EDF & Ecole Polytechnique
Johannes Emmerling, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Vanina Forget, Ecole Polytechnique
Marco Heimann, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
Samer Hobeika, Ecole Polytechnique
François Perrot, Ecole Polytechnique
Delphine Prady, Ecole Polytechnique & Toulouse School of Economics
Hailin Sun, IDEI & Toulouse School of Economics
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Research achievements
The Chaire FDIR has made significant progresses in the understanding of Socially
Responsible Investments (SRI) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). These progresses have implications for various areas within the responsible finance industry. After 5 years of research efforts, apart from theoretical contributions, the results of the Chaire FDIR can be usefully applied to:
‐ Marketing, for the design of new SRI products as well as communication campaigns towards clients and prospects; ‐ Asset management, for the design of investment strategies that can favor financial performance and induce change in corporate behavior; ‐ Extra‐financial as well as financial analysis, for designing measures of CSR and identifying key extra‐financial drivers of economic performance; ‐ Governance of responsible firms and funds, for designing efficient mandates for managers. More information is provided below on these various contributions. Research
contributions of the Chaire FDIR are organized along the main topics of interest identified in the February 23rd, 2010 document prepared by the sponsors of the Chaire. These topics include: the definition, measure and impact on performance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the nature of the demand for SRI, the means to induce firms to reduce externalities, the relevant ESG indicators, the engagement of investors towards firms, the issue of BOP and long‐term growth activities, and the governance and SRI policies of institutional investors. 1. The definition, measure and impact on performance of CSR
The Chaire FDIR has contributed to fix ideas in a long‐standing debate on the nature of CSR. A standard definition of CSR is that it is about sacrificing profits in the social interest. For there to be a sacrifice, the firm must go beyond its legal and contractual obligations, on a voluntary basis. Why do corporations empower themselves and substitute for elected government? According to the Chaire FDIR, a first and clearly relevant motivation is that government may itself fail. Government failures have multiple origins: capture by lobbies and other interest groups, territoriality of jurisdiction, and a combination of high transaction costs and poor information. A second important motivation is that economic agents may want to promote values that are not shared by lawmakers. Because preferences are heterogeneous, it is inevitable that some consumers, investors or workers’ values will not be fully reflected in policy. They, or organized groups acting on their behalf, will then become activists.
Another important element lies in the definition and measurement of responsible investment across asset classes with a focus on the particular case of private equity. Private equity consists of investments in unlisted companies and is available for example to institutional investors, venture capitalists, as well as individuals (high‐net‐worth). From this perspective, the Chaire FDIR is analyzing how the ongoing integration of the environmental, social and governance issues by mainstream private equity investors has benefited from the
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maturation of socially responsible investment in France, thereby contributing to an emerging literature and a growing concern of responsible investors. 2. The nature of the demand for SRI
The demand for socially responsible funds arises from two types of investors: institutions, such as insurance companies, “mutuelles”, pension funds or sovereign funds, and individual investors. These different investors may have very different underlying motivations. Institutions’ rationale for investing in SRI may derive from political issues, reputation concerns, or the fear of pecuniary externalities within firms in well‐diversified long‐horizon portfolios. Individual investors may be inclined to invest in SRI for psychological reasons related to altruism or to self‐image concerns.
Institutional investors usually have a long‐term horizon and invest in a large portion of the assets available in financial markets. According to the Chaire FDIR, investing in firms with sound CSR policies can alleviate issues related to the existence of limits to governance and managers’ temporal horizons. Investments in CSR can turn out to be beneficial, not only for society but also for investors themselves. As a large literature in finance has emphasized, firms often suffer from a short‐term bias. To the extent that SRI investors push forward the need to implement CSR policies, these funds can contribute to overcome the short‐term bias in firm’s decisions. This suggests that socially responsible investors should position themselves as long‐term investors who monitor management and exert voice to correct short‐termism. Moreover, this indicates that an SRI policy for an institutional investor can perfectly be in line with its fiduciary duty.
From an individual investor point of view, investing in SRI investment vehicules falls in the domain of prosocial behavior. The research of the Chaire FDIR sheds some light on the complex mix of interdependent motivations that underlies prosocial behavior and can thus be helpful to better understand the demand for SRI. Investing in SRI may be driven by various non‐exclusive factors ranging from genuine altruism to the hope of good financial returns and to social image concerns. This has important consequences for SRI vehicules. Better knowing their clients’ motivation will help them improve their communication policies as well as the design of their products.
Individual investors’ demand for SRI is also likely to be influenced by trust. The Chaire FDIR argues that adopting SRI criteria in their investment policies has a positive impact on investors’ trust towards funds. Experimental results indicate that the perceived trustworthiness of an investment fund probably depends on the values promoted by the fund. Importantly, it is not enough for a fund to label itself as socially responsible in order to benefit from investors’ trust. The fund has to be explicit regarding its basic socially responsible policies and investors’ trust will increase with the degree of similarity between the values of the fund and those of investors. In other words, the more investors share the values promoted by a fund, the higher their level of trust towards the fund. To the extent that different investors have different values, this result calls for the creation of specialized funds that can cater to different investment segments.
From the perspective of the SRI market, the chaire FDIR also analyzes how the demand for SRI may be influenced by SRI mainstreaming on the one hand, and SRI labels on the other hand. Several SRI labels have indeed merged in the past decade on the SRI market, and their relationship with the efficiency of the SRI retail market in France has been analyzed.
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3. The means to induce firms to reduce externalities
Apart from a government intervention to impose taxes or offer subsidies and to organize emissions’ markets, the Chaire FDIR has shown that best‐in‐class investment strategies that are used by many SRI funds can lead to the adoption of CSR oriented policies by issuers. A best‐in‐class strategy consists in over‐ or under‐weighting assets according to the level of CSR of the issuers. The Chaire FDIR shows that this SRI strategy can have a significant effect on firms’ behavior because it increases the equilibrium cost of capital of firms that are poor in terms of CSR. In this case, shareholders naturally favor CSR oriented strategies (even if these are detrimental to the purely economic performance of the firm) because these strategies maximize asset prices.
Implications for various CSR issues can be derived. Consider, for example, the climate change issue. In the Stern Review (2007), the damage generated by the emission of greenhouse gases in the business‐as‐usual scenario is estimated to be rather larger: even if subject to high scientific uncertainty, the estimated damage is estimated to be equivalent to an immediate and permanent loss of the world GDP by an amount comprised between 5% and 20%. At the same time, Stern estimates that most of these consequences could be eliminated by an immediate and permanent sacrifice of 1% of the world GDP, invested in alternative/new technologies to reduce emissions. Again this number is subject to uncertainty but it provides an indication regarding the ratio of immediate cost to future benefit as being somewhere between 5% and 20%. The analysis of the Chaire FDIR suggests that social efficiency could be obtained if the proportion of SRI investors is larger than this ratio. Indeed, such a proportion of SRI investors would have a significant impact on securities’ prices and would provide the socially correct incentives to isssuers.
Considering the global challenges of sustainability that the demand for SRI might address, climate change and green growth strategies are also examined from the firms’ and investors perspective. In particular, the research conducted in the chaire FDIR challenges the importance of international negotiations on climate and its impact on strategies for CO2 mitigation. The prospect of an international agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change resulting in a common response to carbon pricing, such as a global cap‐and‐trade scheme, can for now only be seen as a long‐term goal. In the meantime, it is realistic to operate within a world of unilateral climate policies, which are eventually loosely coordinated among a limited number of countries. From this perspective, the goal is to examine properly designed sectoral approaches as an answer to two sets of constraints that hinder international agreements on climate change, namely a genuine concern from developing countries for economic growth and competitiveness issues from industrialized countries.
Finally, in various sectors, several other CSR strategies deserve close attention for responsible investors. In the agri‐food sector for instance, the emergence of endogenous norms and standards, or the strategies adopted by firms with respect to GMOs may affect the demand for SRI. From this perspective, the chaire FDIR develops both theoretical and empirical analyses examining which type of regulations and incentives should be favoured, and how they affect various interest groups.
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4. The relevant ESG indicators
SRI and CSR heavily depend on financial as well as extra‐financial analysis. The quantitative tools for financial analysis have been developed in the last 50 years or so. A growing literature is now focusing on creating the quantitative tools for extra‐financial analysis. In particular, this literature enriches the cost‐benefit approach by considering alternative preferences and new interactions between the various economic, social and environmental consequences of firms’ and governments’ policies. These studies should ultimately prove useful to guide SRI analysts in their effort to merge financial and extra‐financial information. A first important ESG factor relates to the security of the working environment in firms. It is sometimes difficult to assess with precision the risks to health and life that workers face. For instance, there is often conflicting information about the likelihood of dying from new environmental or technological risks. A case in point is offered by the asbestos (amiante) that is one of the greatest causes of work‐related deaths. Due to the scientific uncertainty over the impact of asbestos, it is difficult to predict the number of fatalities that it will induce. How do people react to the uncertainty over the probability of dying from a specific risk? Answering this question is crucial to offer an objective valuation of the value of life‐threatening externalities. The Chaire FDIR shows that the existence of ambiguity over baseline mortality risks increases the value of a statistical life when the decision maker is averse to ambiguity. Existing estimations of the value of statistical life in developed countries range from $1 to $10 million. The results of the Chaire FDIR support the view that extra‐financial analysts should favor the higher values of statistical life. Such high values of statistical life are indeed needed to account for the scientific uncertainty. A second important ESG factor is related to the value of environmental externalities. What is the value today of a project that has positive financial and ecological consequences? This is a central question for extra‐financial analysts and is relevant for a wide set of environmental contexts, such as global warming, nuclear wastes, and biodiversity. Its answer depends upon our expectations about the quality of the environment and about the level of economic development that future generations will face when the project returns (both financial and ecological) will materialize. The Chaire FDIR proposes to use two different discount rates when evaluating the financial and ecological consequences of a project. The financial discount rate is the tradional interest rate that is used in computing the net present value of a project. The ecological discount factor associated to a given date is the immediate sure environmental impact that has the same impact on welfare as a unit environmental impact at this later date. This method is simple because one does not need to compute certainty equivalent future values of environmental impacts. As an example, the Chaire FDIR has applied the model to the issue of biodiversity. Using data about the link between biodiversity and economic development, he indicates that projects’ consequences on biodiversity should be discounted at a rate of 1.5%, whereas projects’ financial returns should be discounted at 3.2%. Consider for example the case of an analyst whose objective is to assess the value today of a project that generates in 30 years a positive economic cashflow worth $1,000 and a negative ecological cashflow of $600. Because the ecological discount rate is much lower than the economic discount rate, the present value of the project is actually close to zero (from a social point of view)!
Finally, the nature of synergies and interactions among the various ESG criteria is also analyzed in order to determine what type of ESG policy mix is valued by investors on
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financial markets. This issue is all the more important as no consensus has yet emerged so far on ESG integration and value creation. The chaire FDIR contributes to this literature by analyzing which ESG factors combination leads to financial performance in Europe.
5. The engagement of investors towards firms
To better understand the potential impact of SRI investors on corporate behavior, it is interesting to study investors’ engagement strategy and impact. The Chaire FDIR has analyzed the impact of shareholders’ engagement on firms’ value. They show that, when a CSR resolution is adopted, firms will experience a positive stock price reaction if the adopted CSR policy does not impede too much economic performance, and if the potential improvement in CSR and the strength of the consensus around the particular CSR issue at stake are high enough. This shows that, in some circumstances, there is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) premium associated with the fact that a company has a higher level of CSR.
Policies tilted towards CSR are more likely to be adopted when the number of SRI investors and the potential CSR improvement are high enough, and when SRI investors’ risk aversion and undiversifiable risk are low enough. This is because socially responsible investors hold a sizable fraction of firms’ capital that enables them to influence firms’ decisions through dialogue or vote at shareholders’ meetings. However, when SRI investors do not hold a significant portion of firms’ shares, a model shows that CSR policies are not adopted. This raises the possibility of a large socially responsible raider’s intervention. This raider can buy and hold non‐responsible firms’ shares in an attempt to build a majority in favor of the CSR policy. If he is not too risk‐averse, the raider succeeds in acquiring a controlling block. The CSR policy is then adopted. This can be associated with a positive abnormal return for the socially responsible raider if he is able to sell back part of the socially responsible firm and to pocket in the CSR premium. It is interesting to notice that a pure financial raider cannot successfully implement such a strategy and rip the premium. Indeed, such a raider would like to announce that he will vote in favor of the CSR policy but this announcement is not credible. SRI funds are thus not ready to pay the premium when buying the firm’s share. As a result, the purely financial raider does not display abnormal returns.
Overall, this analysis suggests that there are two ways SRI investors’ engagement can affect firms’ CSR policies. On the one hand, SRI investors can generate abnormal returns if they can influence a firm’s strategy through negociation and voting at general assemblies. This strategy generates abnormal returns in the long run if the positive financial results of CSR policies materialize in the long run. On the other hand, an SRI private equity fund can also generate positive abnormal returns in the short‐ run by investing in non‐responsible firms and turning them into responsible. This analysis suggests that doing well by doing good is not reserved to firms but is also amenable to SRI investors. Through this research, the Chaire FDIR has made a major contribution to the business case of SRI.
A study performed by the Chaire FDIR offers results that could prove useful to design engagement strategy. This paper does not look at shareholders’ engagement per se (for which there is little data available at this point) but instead focuses on the impact of the stringency of environmental regulations. In a sense, regulations can be viewed as affecting firms’ environmental policies just as engagement could. Results could thus be relevant to estimate the impact of a stringent request to improve environmental performance coming
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from shareholders. The research of the Chaire FDIR uses survey data on 4200 production facilities from 7 OECD countries (Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, and the US). They show that a 1% increase in the probability to have a stringent environmental regulation increases by 0.04% the probability for a firm to make environmental R&D investments and 0.02% percent the probability for a firm to be profitable. Interestingly, this result suggests that engaging corporations regarding environmental R&D could be beneficial for SRI funds. However, the analysis of the Chaire FDIR indicates that the overall effect of stringent regulations on profitability is negative due to a large direct financial cost of compliance. The lessons for SRI funds is that the cost of engagement (for the funds themselves but also for the companies being engaged) should be i) taken into account before deciding whether an engagement campaign is desirable, and ii) monitored closely once a campaign has started. The evidence offered by the Chaire FDIR indeed seem to show that compliance costs could exceed the financial benefits derived from enhanced environmental performance.
Finally, to examine the importance of shareholders’ engagements in the promotion of long run and good governance practices, an important effort is undertaken in the chaire FDIR to examine the relationship between governance and performance. In particular, the role of boards of directors, as an essential layer between investors, shareholders and managers is investigated. Independence, quality and rewards of directors as well as managers are the center of interest if this research, showing the multiple facets in the governance‐performance debate. 6. The issue of BOP and long‐term growth activities
Responsible investors are confronted to various investment strategies in emerging markets. One of them relates to « Bottom of the Pyramid » (BOP) strategies, suggesting that multinational firms may make revenues while alleviating poverty. Such a BOP concept has received a lot of attention recently but still needs theoretical foundations and empirical validity. The chaire FDIR studies several firms’ projects within the BOP markets, highlighting the capacities necessary to succeed together with the learning and innovation challenges posed by such strategies. 7. The governance and SRI policies of institutional investors
SRI funds often promote long‐term objectives. The Chaire FDIR argues that, for these
objectives to be achieved, a proper incentive structure needs to be offered to the fund managers. As in the case of firm managers, fund managers compensation is linked to short‐term as well as long‐term portfolio performance. A widespread view in the financial industry is that relying on short‐term performance makes it harder to implement a long‐term strategy. For instance, an SRI fund manager reports “The big difficulty is that a lot of the reputational issues and environmental issues play out over a very long period of time [...] and if the market isn’t looking at it you can sit there for a very long time on your high horse saying ‘this company is a disaster, it shouldn’t be trusted ’and you can lose your investors an awful lot of money... ” (Guyatt (2006)). Proper compensation schemes in SRI funds need to strike the appropriate balance between short‐term compensation, necessary for the manager to meet his or her consumption needs, and long‐term compensation, necessary for the manager to embrace a socially responsible perspective.
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A growing body of literature shows that stock prices do not fully reflect environmental, social, governance and other intangible assets such as R&D expenditures. These empirical results are often interpreted as evidence of market inefficiencies due to the intangible nature of the information under study. The Chaire FDIR offers an alternative hypothesis based on the long‐term nature of the information under study (the operational items cited above are more likely to improve long‐run than short‐term financial performance). They argue that the slow incorporation of information is a result of stock market short‐termism due to short‐term compensation. Short‐term compensation is inevitable unless fund managers are patient and share the long‐term prosocial inclination of the fund. To be performing well and fulfill their long‐term fiduciary duty, SRI investors should align their level of human and technical capital with their aspiration in terms of responsible investing.
Finally, an empirical analysis of how institutional investors who are member of the long‐term investor club integrate ESG factors into their investment strategies has been conducted. Results highlight a convergent vision of ESG integration but heterogeneous practices suggesting complex interactions between long term investing and ESG integration.
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Research projects for 2012
Beyond the main research topics listed in the document of February 2010, the researchers of the Chaire FDIR in conjunction with the sponsors have defined three high‐priority empirical research projects. These projects are related to the motivations for socially responsible investments, to the SRI bond markets, and to the governance of socially responsible firms. These three research topics are briefly presented below. 1. The motivations for socially responsible investments
What determines the demand for SRI products? The asset management industry is currently confronted with some difficulties to collect new savings. In light of these difficulties, SRI products can constitute an interesting way of retaining clients or of obtaining new ones. To test these ideas, this project proposes to empirically study the motivation of French investors for SRI products.
Preliminary investigations done by researchers of the Chaire FDIR are based on methodologies developed by social psychologists. It shows that the higher the similarity between the values expressed by funds’ investment policy and those expressed by investors, the higher is investors’ trust toward the funds. Values being surveyed dealt with Environmental, Social, and Governance (business ethics) issues. This research concerned partly American laypersons.
In this project, we plan to deepen our understanding of these issues by studying French investors and by looking at whether trust actually converts into higher actual investments. We propose to collaborate with the sponsors of the Chaire FDIR in order to run advance this project further. The idea would be i) to submit a questionnaire to their clients, both SRI and traditional, ii) to measure their values, and iii) to let these clients participate in an investment game. This would enable us to study the link between value similarity, trust, and investment propensity. Currently, more than a third of the asset managers that belong to the Chaire FDIR have expressed their interest for this project.
The empirical results, for each participating asset management institution, will be bilaterally communicated with great precision. Another expected end product is a research article based on more aggregated results that would be largely diffused in the academic community. 2. The SRI bond market
The largest securities markets around the world are by far the bond markets. Surprisingly, little is know about the SRI bond markets. The Chaire FDIR will strive to shed some light on important issues related to this topic.
The first issue is related to the choice of ESG criteria that should be used to evaluate corporate debt. Should the criteria be the same as the ones used to evaluate equity? This is not clear at all given that i) there are several technical differences between fixed income and equity instruments including the fixed maturity and the predetermined payment scheme, and ii) conflicts of interest can emerge between shareholders and bondholders. A related
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question of interest is to study whether it is always socially responsible to give more power to shareholders.
A second issue is related to the evaluation of the social responsibility of sovereign states. What indicators can be used to evaluate this responsibility? Is the level of social responsibility related to the level of sovereign debt issued by a state? One could think that relevant indicators could be designed for health, poverty, access to education, environment, and human rights. An important issue regards the way one can account for the differences between rich and poor countries.
A third issue concerns the social effectiveness of public expenditures of a state. This point is crucial. Indeed, a poor country that spends resources effectively should be better evaluated than a rich one that does not. To address this issue, one should try and design a way to measure the social effectiveness of public spendings. This entails taking into account externalities (environmental, educational, judicial…) as well risk prevention over a long horizon (discounting rate? Short termism of politicans?). A fourth interesting issue is related to the socially responsible level of public debt. The criteria Debt over GDP is often used in practice but has a lot of drawbacks. Does this socially responsible level of debt depend on the growth prospects of a state? Should the amount of debt be corrected by the value of the physical and human capital held by the state?
In order to get a good understanding of the state‐of‐the‐art results regarding the link between ESG factors and bond investment performance, the Chaire has organized, in February 2012, a worshop that has gathered the three most widely recognized international researchers of these issues. These researchers have presented their most recent empirical methodologies. The results suggest that a corporate issuer’s environmental responsibility affects its cost of debt and bond financing. This result echoes some of the theoretical results the Chaire FDIR. The workshop has opened new perspective in particular regarding the evaluation of the social responsibility of sovereign states and its ability to predict default events as well as economic performance. 3. Governance How to measure the quality of governance? How can one identify “favorable” governance structures that are conducive to good accounting, financial and extra‐financial performance, and distinguish them from more “unfavorable” such structures? Relative to the large amount of studies that have established a connexion (or lack thereof) between governance quality and firm performance in the US, there is a surprising paucity of such work regarding French firms. The purpose of this project is to fill this gap identify alternative sources of French data about the relevant governance indicators, to merge those data into a single database, and to identify econometrically the causalities running from governance to performance (or the other way around.) Of particular importance within the debate on governance quality is the issue of the composition of the Board of Directors and its potential impact on the efficiency of the firm. Most existing empirical studies have used US data and have led to unconclusive results (in the sense of finding an absence of statistical link between board independence and firm performance, or even a negative effect). However, there are strong specificities in the way Boards operate across the two countries, so it is key to analyze this issue with a large and well defined universe of French firms. Moreover, factors other than
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independence might either on their own or via interaction effects also impact firms’ performance. For example, gender diversity within the Board, internationalization of the Board, expertise (be it general like accounting, or sector‐specific), are all likely to affect the effectiveness of the Board at advising and controlling managers. For this project, several professionals have been contacted in order to use available existing data: AFG, the sponsors of the chair FDIR, and other proxy firms specialized on governance. In particular, we wish to explore the publicly available voting recommendations that have systematically been made by the AFG over the past twelve years (and which includes recommendations to the whole SBF 120 in the past ten years). These recommendations are based on the on the Hellebuyck code, which is itself of particular interest since it has contributed to shape governance criteria and practices in France over the last decade. Thus far, the most comprehensive and exploitable database has been obtained thanks to a partnership with Proxinvest. This database contains information on the composition of boards of the SBF250 index list over the years 2000s. Finally, we are currently negociating access to a database containing more accurate information on directors’ expertise for the SBF250 as well. This will probably be available thanks to a partnership with Ethics and Boards. An important stake will be to match all these data with performance indicators and create exploitable variables. This may also be the subject of a future PhD. 4. Shareholder engagement
When analyzing the determinants and consequences of shareholder engagement, a complex set of questions are concerned. What are the motives for engagement? What are the different types of engagement policies developed by shareholders (what type of dialogue and voting policies…)? Do engaged shareholders cooperate with each others? What is the link between shareholder engagement and extra‐financial evaluation and performance? What themes of engagement are privileged among the main ESG factors? What is the impact of engagement policies on extra financial performance, investment/disinvestment etc.?
The objective here is to provide answers to these issues by examining specifically the impact of engagement policies and dialogue between shareholders and managers. As mentioned above, a key source of information is the collection of AFG recommendations based on the Hellbuyck code, which have aimed at guiding fund managers’ voting policies and hence their involvement in French firms. More recently, two studies by Novethic and ORSE in 2011 characterize engagement policies among shareholders from a very aggregate perspective. One trend that seem to emerge from these studies is that shareholder engagement has developed recently over the past decade, but no consensus yet exists on the definition, means of action and impact of such an engagement policies. Such strategies would be complementary to responsible investment practices because a comprehensive dialogue on ESG risk and opportunity between shareholders and managers might favor investment (and less dialogue might refrain from investing), but no study has identified so far the impact of engaged shareholders on investment and firm valuation. It is thus interesting to analyze more deeply the consequences of engagement policies.
From this perspective, engagement in non‐listed firms, which are much harder to observe and characterize, would be an interesting application. A research project has hence started in 2011 to analyze the impact of engaged shareholders in non‐listed firms. The goal of this project is to quantify the value for engaged shareholders of information on extra‐
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financial performance with respect to environmental, social and governance factors. In partnership with AFG and the French Private Equity Association, filed data are collected, involving professional investors, in order to determine the impact of engagement with respect to ESG criteria on firm valuation.
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Publications and working papers
Ambec S. and P. Lanoie, (2011), The Strategic Importance of Environmental Sustainability, forthcoming as chapter 2 in Managing Human Resources for Environmental Sustainability, Susan E. Jackson Deniz S. Ones and Stephan Dilchert Ed., John Wiley & Sons.
Ambec S., M. A. Cohen, S. Elgie, and P. Lanoie, (2011), The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?, Resource for the Future Discussion Paper 11‐01.
Ambec S., Le coût de la réglementation verte, L' Expansion, n. 767, October 2011.
Arjalies , Goubet & JP Ponssard, (2011), Approches stratégiques des émissions CO2, Les cas de l'industrie cimentière et de l'industrie chimique, Revue française de gestion, 2011/6 N° 215, p. 123‐146.
Bazoche, P, Bunte, F., Combris, P, Giraud‐Héraud, E., Seabra Pinto, A., Tsakiridou, E (2011), Willingness to pay for pesticides‘ reduction in E.U.: nothing but organic?, Working Paper
Cahuc, P. and Challe, E. (2011), Produce or speculate: Asset bubbles, occupational choice and efficiency, International Economic Review, forthcoming
Carlier, G., Dana, R.‐A. and Galichon, A. (2011), Pareto efficiency for the concave order and multivariate comonotonicity, Journal of Economic Theory, forthcoming
Challe, E. & Ragot, X. (2011), Bubbles and self‐fulfilling crises, B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 11(1) (Topics) Challe, E., Mojon, B. and Ragot, X. (2012), Equilibrium risk‐shifting and interest rate in an opaque financial system, Working Paper Chambolle C. and S. Poret, (2011), Fair Trade Contracts for Some, an Insurance for Others?, Working Paper Chriqui V. and Gollier, C., Risques et décision publique, Les Echos , August 9, 2011.
Chriqui V. and Gollier, C., Le risque et la décision politique, La Tribune , July 28, 2011.
Courbage C, N. Treich, and B. Rey, (2011), Prevention and precaution, The Handbook of Insurance Economics, forthcoming.
Crifo, P. (2012). Comment verdir la croissance? In Repenser l'économie avec les Lauréats du Prix du Meilleur Jeune Economiste, Ed. La Découverte. 2012.
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Crifo, P. (2012). L'économie et la croissance vertes. Panorama annuel des cleantech en France. GreenUnivers. A paraître. Crifo, P. &, Forget, V. (2011). Think Global, Invest Responsible: Why the Private Equity Industry Goes Green, Ecole Polytechnique departement d’économie Cahier n° 2012‐03.
Crifo, P., M. Flam & M. Glachant. (2011). L’industrie française face à l’économie verte : L’exemple de sept filières. Rapport pour le Cercle de l’industrie. Juillet. Crifo, P. & MA. Diaye. (2011). The Composition of Compensation Policy : From Cash to Fringe Benefits. Annals of Economics and Statistics. 101‐102. Crifo, P. & Cavaco, S. (2011). The CSR‐performance missing link : complementarity between environmental, social and business behaviors criteria?, Working Paper. Crifo, P. & N. Mottis. (2011). L’investissement Socialement Responsable en France: Opportunité de « Niche » ou Placement « Mainstream » ? Gérer et Comprendre. 104 :14‐25. Cropper M.L., J.K. Hammitt, and L.A. Robinson, (2011), Valuing Mortality‐Risk Reductions: Progress and Challenges, Annual Review of Resource Economics 3: 313–336
Desquilbet M. and Poret S. (2012), Labelling and coexistence regulation of GMOs and non‐GMOs: an economic perspective, in Coexistence and traceability of GM and non‐GM supply chains, Yves Bertheau (eds). Forthcoming
Desquilbet M. Poret S. (2011). How do GM/non GM coexistence regulations affect markets and welfare?, Working Paper
Forget, V. and Engle‐Warnick, J. (2011), Green Signaling in Experimental Private Equity Negotiations, Working Paper
Forget, V. Doing (2012) Good and Doing Well: A Multidimensional Puzzle, Ecole Polyetchnique departement d’économie Cahier n° 2012‐04.
Galichon, A., Le véritable enjeu de la règle d’or, Les Echos 31/10/2011.
Galichon, A. and Tibi, P., Est‐il vraiment important que les marches soient efficaces, Revue Banque, avril 2011.
Galichon, A. and Henry, M. (2011), Dual theory of choice with multivariate risks, Journal of Economic Theory, forthcoming
Giraud‐Héraud, E., Hammoudi, A., Hoffmann, R., Soler, L.‐G. (2012), Joint Private Safety Standards and Vertical Relationships in Food Retailing, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Volume 21, Issue 1, pages 179–212, Spring 2012.
Giraud‐Héraud, E., Grazia, C., Hammoudi, A., (2011), Explaining the Emergence of Private Standards in the Food Supply Chains, Working Paper
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Giraud‐Héraud, E. (2011), Do Consumers and Citizens Really Have an Aversion for GMOs?, in Chair’s update, Ecole Polytechnique, n°4, 4p, pp 1‐2.
Gollier, C., (2011), Discounting and risk adjusting non‐marginal investment projects, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 38 (3), 297‐324, doi:10.1093/erae/jbr028
Gollier, C., (2011), Does ambiguity aversion reinforce risk aversion? Applications to portfolio choices and asset pricing, Review of Economic Studies 78 (4), 1329‐1344.
Gollier, C., (2011), On the underestimation of the precautionary effect in discounting, Geneva Risk and Insurance Review 36, 95‐111.
Gollier, C., and F. Cherbonnier, (2011), Decreasing Aversion under Ambiguity , mimeo IDEI, June 2011.
Gollier, C., (2011), Optimal Illusions and the Simplification of Beliefs , working paper, June 2011.
Gollier, C., and S. Pouget, (2011), The good, the bad, and the ugly: A theory of profitable and effective socially responsible investments, mimeo IDEI.
Gollier C., and S. Pouget (2011), “Asset pricing and corporate behavior with socially responsible investors”, Mimeo. Gollier C. and N. treich, (2011), Option value and precaution, Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resources and Environmental Economics, forthcoming.
Gollier, C., (2011), Discounting, inequalities and economic convergence, mimeo IDEI.
Gollier, C.,"L'assurance‐vie, un produit d'épargne à repenser", Les Echos , December 29, 2011.
Hammitt J.K., (2011), Discounting Health and Cost‐Effectiveness Analysis: A Response to Nord, Health Economics.
Hammitt J.K. and L.A. Robinson, (2011), The Income Elasticity of the Value per Statistical Life: Transferring Estimates Between High and Low Income Populations, Journal of Benefit‐Cost Analysis 2.
Heimann M., Pouget S., Mullet É., and Bonnefon J‐F., (2011), The Experimental Approach to Trust in socially Responsible Investments, In W. Sun, C. Louche, & R. Pérez (Eds.), Critical Studies on Corporate Responsibility, Governance and Sustainability (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 169‐183), Emerald Group Publishing.
Heimann M., Pouget S., Mullet É., and Bonnefon J‐F., (2011), Similarity in Values and the Perceived Trustworthiness Of Investment Funds, working paper.
Lanoie P ., J. Laurent‐Lucchetti, N. Johnstone and S. Ambec, (2011), Environment policy, innovation and performance: New insights on the Porter hypothesis, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy 20(3): 803–841.
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Laye, J.A.; Giraud‐Héraud, E., (2011), Commitment to commercialization and quality choices in the Champagne wine producer‐distributor relationship, Enometrica, 4 (1), pp 9‐32.
Murphy M., Perrot F., Rivera‐Santos M. (in press), New Perspectives on Learning and Innovation in Cross‐Sector Collaborations, Journal of Business Research.
Perrot F., (2011), Multinational Corporations at the Base of the Economic Pyramid: A Strategic Analysis Framework, doctoral dissertation, defended on September 23 2011, Palaiseau. Thesis available online at pastel.archives‐ouvertes.fr/pastel‐00643949/en/
Tsai W‐J., J‐T. Liu, and J.K. Hammitt, (2011), Aggregation Biases in Estimates of the Value of a Statistical Life: Evidence from Longitudinal Matched Worker‐Firm Data in Taiwan, Environmental and Resource Economics 49.
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Communication of the Chaire FDIR achievements
The advances made by the researchers of the Chaire FDIR have been presented to a wide audience including academic researchers, finance practitioners, and the general public, both in France and abroad. The chaire FDIR has been instrumental in allowing for the creation of the knowledge communicated in the various events described below. 1. Books The chair has been involved in two books, one that came out in 2010, and one forthcoming at Princeton University Press.
Corporate Social Responsibility: from Compliance from opportunity (P. Crifo & J.‐P. Ponssard eds, Editions de l’Ecole Polytechnique, 2010) summarizes the chair’s research output in four areas. i. what lessons can be drawn from the crisis in terms of governance and financial stability? ii. Where do we stand regarding the link between CSR and the financial performance of the firms? iii. How do firms manage new sectoral risks such as climate change, nutrition and health? iv. How and at what cost do firms interact with the communities with whom there are intermeshed in the developing world?
The economics of discounting and sustainable development (Christian Gollier, Princeton University Press, 2012) Many books have described how civilizations rise, flower and then fall. Underlying this observed dynamic are a myriad of individual and collective investment decisions affecting the accumulation of capital, the level of education, the preservation of the environment, infrastructure quality, legal systems, and the protection of property rights. This vast literature from Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations through Gregory Clark’s Farewell to Alms to Jared Diamond’s Collapse is retrospective and positive, examining the link between past actions and the actual collective destiny. In contrast, this book takes a prospective and normative view, analyzing the problem of investment project selection. Which projects should be implemented to maximize intergenerational welfare? The solution to this problem heavily relies on our understanding and beliefs about the dynamics of civilizations. Life is full of investment decisions, trading off current sacrifices for a better future. This book examines the economic tools that are used to evaluate actions that entail costs and benefits that are scattered through time. These tools are useful to optimize the impacts of our investments both at the individual and collective levels. It presents the fundamental quantitative tools to evaluate the social responsibility of projects and companies.
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2. Communication to academic researchers The researchers of the Chaire FDIR have been invited to share their work and ideas in various academic conferences and workshops. In their publications or during their presentations, the researchers always gratefully ackowledge the support of the chaire FDIR. Examples of academic conferences
‐ International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioral Economics, March 2012 ‐ Comparative Analysis of Enterprise Data, Nuremberg, February 2012. ‐ Alliance for Research on Corporate Social Responsibility (ARCS), Yale, February, 2012 ‐ CSR workshop “Shaping the Future of CSR Research”, Gent, January, 2012 ‐ CEPR conference ‘Macroeconomics and financial intermediation: directions since the crisis’, Brussels, December 2011 ‐ Finance and Responsible Business conference at the University of California, Berkeley, November 2011 ‐ Association of Southern European Economic Theorists (ASSET), Evora, Portugal, October 2011 ‐ Erik Kempe Award lecture, University of Umea, Sweden, October 2011 ‐ Conference on “SWFs and Other LTI: From 'Savings Glut' to Sustainable Growth”, Paris, October 2011
‐ European Academy of Business in Society, Fontainebleau, October 2011 ‐ 38th Seminar of the European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists, Geneva
Association, Vienna University of Economics and Business, September 2011 ‐ XIIIth Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists, Zurich, Switzerland, August 2011 ‐ XIIIth Congress of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE): EAAE 2011 Congress, Switzerland, August 2011 ‐ EAERE 18th Annual Conference , Rome, Italie, July 2011 ‐ European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists Conference, June 2011 ‐ International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, Mines Paristech, Paris, June 2011 ‐ Congrès de l’Association Française d’Economie Expérimentale, May 2011 ‐ Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Conference, Wharton, University
of Pennsylvania, May 2011 ‐ European Accounting Association, Rome, April 2011 ‐ Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, March 2011 ‐ Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, Denver, January 2011 ‐ Econometric Society Winter Meeting, Denver, January 2011
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Examples of workshops and colloquiums ‐ Workshop « Governance and ethical finance », IPAG, December 2011 ‐ Colloque Finance et Développement Durable, Cercle DD/RSE, December 2011
‐ Premières rencontres parlementaires sur la croissance verte, November 2011 ‐ Colloquium « Le risque nucléaire et la décision publique », ENS, Paris, November 2011 ‐ Conference FEDERE les Echos, October 2011 ‐ Journées Futuris‐ ANRT, September 2011 ‐ Colloque « Enjeux ECONOMIQUES DES INVESTISSEMENTS DURABLES », September 2011 ‐ Campus du C3D July 2011 ‐ Conférence Ingénieurs sans frontières–Paris Sud, Ecole Polytechnique, June 2011 ‐ Stage ISST Croissance et développement en IDF, June 2011 ‐ 10èmes journées Louis‐André Gérard‐Varet, Marseille, June 2011
‐ Journées de l’AFSE, Law and Economics, Besançon, June 2011 ‐ Séminaire SERECO, EDF R&D, May 2011 ‐ Premier séminaire national RSE, Assemblée nationale Paris, April 2011
‐ Econometrics colloquium, Columbia University, March 2011
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3. Communication to finance practitioners The Chaire FDIR has organized various events during which researchers have presented the implications of their results for CSR and SRI. These events include:
‐ Around 15 workshops hosted by the Association Française de Gestion financière (AFG) on various topics ranging from corporate governance to financial markets’ short‐termism (for more details about contents: www.idei.fr/fdir) ‐ Four annual conferences of the Chaire FDIR attended by several hundreds of practitioners: . Annual conference in October 2011 . Annual conference in January 2010 . The first IDEI/Chaire FDIR conference in Toulouse in May 2009 . The inaugural conference in Paris in January 2008
List of recent meetings, workshops and conferences organized by the chaire FDIR
• Workshop « SRI in bond markets », February 2012 • Workshop « Governance and engagement », February 2012 • Meeting « Gouvernance », June 2011 • Meeting « Obligations et ISR », June 2011 • Meeting « Motivation des investisseurs pour l’ISR », June 2011 • Workshop « SRI Labels », june 2011 • Meeting « Consequences of shareholder engagement », June 2011 • Workshop « Financial markets, investment strategies and responsible finance », May
2011 • Workshop “Sustainability & Impact Challenges at the Base of the Pyramid” February
2011 • Workshop « Are high compensations legitimate? », November 2010 • Workshop « Environment, sustainable development, and investors’ confidence »,
October 2010 • Workshop « CSR and SRI: mainstreaming, communication & performance », June
2010 • Workshop « Financial markets, investment strategies and responsible finance », May
2010 • Workshop « Financial instability & governance: lessons from the crisis », January 2010
The presentations made during these workshops are available on the Chaire FDIR website at www.idei.fr/fdir.
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4. Communication to the general public The ideas elaborated within the Chaire FDIR have reached a broad audience via articles and communications on national business and economic newspapers and magazines including Les Echos, Le Monde, Regards croisés sur l’économie, La Tribune, and Les Temps Modernes.
In order to dissiminate the research results and the ideas of the chaire FDIR, a special edition of Institut Louis Bachelier Research Review has been published in 2011, both in French and English. This special edition entitled “Making Finance Serve Society” has been realized based on articles of the Chaire FDIR research team by Stefan Ambec, Edouard Challe, Patricia Crifo, Christian Gollier, Sylvaine Poret and Jean Tirole. In addition, a special feature is devoted to the chaire FDIR on Institut Louis Bachelier’s website, with two interviews, of Christian Gollier and Patricia Crifo: http://dev.finxchange.prodinternet.com/ A second special edition of Institut Louis Bachelier Research Review for the Chaire FDIR will come out in 2012.
Moreover, in 2010 the chair launched its new website (http://www.idei.fr/fdir/), summarizing in a user‐friendly manner all the realizations of the chair’s researchers since its inception in 2007. The website is meant both for internal use and external communication of the chair’s achievements. Among other things, the website contains
• All supporting documents to the workshops organized by the chair • The annual reports of the chair • The chair’s update, summarizing the chair’s activities and realizations • A restricted access page that ensures effective communication between researchers
and sponsors
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Education and training related to the Chaire FDIR The Chaire FDIR has been pivotal in fostering the diffusion of knowledge on CSR and SRI within the young generations of finance practitioners and researchers. State‐of‐the‐art techniques and ideas of CSR and SRI have been taught in various courses offered to masters in Economics and Finance at the Ecole Polytechnique, at the Toulouse School of Economics, and at the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises (IAE) of the University of Toulouse. Moreover, a dozen of PhD students have been working on the important issues of the Chaire FDIR. 1. Courses
• Master in Finance, IAE (University of Toulouse): Asset Management and SRI (12h)
• Master of International Management, IAE (University of Toulouse): International
finance and Corporate Social Responsibility (15h)
• Diplôme Universitaire Audit Social et Audit de la Responsabilité Sociale des
Entreprises, Chambre des Salariés du Luxembourg: Investissement Socialement
Responsable (in coopération with University of Toulouse)
• Master Financial Markets and Intermediaries, Toulouse School of Economics:
Economics of risk and insurance: taking into account the long‐term impacts of
investments (27h)
• Master in Environmental and Natural Resources Economics, Toulouse School of
Economics: Environmental Economics (27 h)
• Master in Environmental and Natural Resources Economics, Toulouse School of
Economics: Sustainable Development (15 h)
• Master of Public Affairs, Sciences Po Paris: Cost‐Benefit Analysis and the measure of
externalities (12h) (by Nicolas Treich, a research of the Chair)
• Master EDDEE (X, Agro, Mines, Université Paris Ouest…): Corporate Social
Responsibility (20h)
• Master DET (Univ. Paris Ouest Nanterre): Governance and Sustainable development
(20h)
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2. PhD Students Former PhD students of the Chair FDIR who have already defended include:
• Samer Hobeika: ISR, from the households to long‐run institutional investors,
defense on December 2011 (JP. Ponssard advisor)
• Johannes Emmerling: Social responsibility and social inequalities, defended in
December 2011 (C. Gollier advisor)
• François Perrot: Poverty in developing coutries and SRI, defense on September
2011 (JP. Ponssard & P. Crifo advisors)
• Hailin Sun: Essay on Bargaining and Assortative Matching under Risk, defended in
June 2011 (C. Gollier advisor)
• Johannes Gierlinger: Valuing long‐term investments with scientific uncertainty,
defended in December 2010 (C. Gollier advisor)
• Delphine Prady: Extra‐financial information used by traditional investors, defended
in October 2010 (Paul Seabright advisor)
The defended theses are available upon request from the Chairs’ co‐directors.
Current PhD students of the Chair FDIR include:
• Thomas André: BOP strategies and extra‐financial performance, started in
September 2011 (JP. Ponssard & P. Crifo advisors)
• Liviu Andronic: Extra‐financial information and financial forecasts, started in
September 2010 (S. Pouget advisor)
• Vassili Vergopoulos: Behavioral aspects of long‐term investments, started 2010 (C.
Gollier advisor)
• Claire‐Marie Bono: Fiscal reforms under environmental constraints, started in 2009
(E. Challe advisor)
• Marco Heimann: Trust and socially responsible investments, started in September
2009 (S. Pouget advisor)
• Vanina Forget: Private equity and sustainable development, defense expected in
October 2012 (P. Crifo advisor)
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Scorecard of research projects
Theme Projects Advancement The definition, measure and impact on performance of CSR
Measure and impact of CSR in French firms: Crifo, Diaye & Pekovic The rationale for CSR and SRI: Tirole The factors that affect the valuation of CSR including risk and ambiguity: Gollier, Treich Evaluating Porter hypothesis: Ambec
Several working papers, several published articles, 1 PhD in progress, to be defended in October 2012
The nature of the demand for SRI
SRI mainstreaming and SRI labels: Crifo, Hobeika, Arjaliès Similarity in Values and the Perceived Trustworthiness Of Investment Funds: Heimann, Pouget Analysis of strategic competition between labels in the domain of sustainable development, including SRI : Hobeika, Ponssard and Poret The link between financial structure of companies and their CSR approaches: Forget, Poret
Several working papers, several published articles, 2 PhD completed: 1 PhD defended on December, 16 2011 (Hobeika), 1 PhD defended in June 2010 (Arjaliès), 1 PhD in progress
The means to induce firms to reduce externalities
Firms strategies towards climate change: Ponssard, Arjaliès Standards, norms, GMOS in the agri‐food sector: Giraud‐Heraud, Poret Investing for Change: Profit from Responsible Invest.: Landier Asset pricing and Corporate Behavior with SRI: Gollier, Pouget Public regulations and innovation : an analysis of the Porter hypothesis in the food sector: Ponssard, Giraud Heraud and Sinclair Desgagné
5 articles in progress, 1 PhD defended in June 2010 1 book published
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Bond markets and SRI The term structure of interest rates with environmental risk: Gollier On the sustainable level of sovereign debt: Ambec
1 article, 1 working paper
The relevant ESG indicators
What type of ESG policy mix is valued by investors: Crifo, Cavaco, Diaye & Pekovic The value of life‐threatening externalities: Treich The value of environmental externalities: Gollier
1 working paper, 2 articles in progress, several published papers
The engagement of investors towards firms
Governance and board composition (independence and expertise): Crifo, Challe, Cavaco, Reberioux The business case for SRI private equity: Crifo, Forget & Teyssier, Gollier, Pouget
3 articles in progress, 1 Research internship for a master student (master EDDEE april ‐ july 2012), 1 PhD project to be started (in case the student is financed) in September 2012
BOP and long term growth activities
BOP: Perrot, Andre Several published articles, 1 PhD defended on september, 23 2011 (Perrot). 1 PhD starting in late 2011
The governance and SRI policies of institutional investors
ESG integration by long term investors: Hobeika CSR, investment capacity and multi‐tasking agency relationship: Biais, Casamatta, Mariotti Financial market short‐termism and the mandates of SRI fund managers: Casamatta, Pouget
Several working papers